Walsh & Meehan on the podium with the gold medal Kiwis and bronze medallists Great Britain
Catherine Walsh and her tandem pilot Fran Meehan have made history in London today, taking the silver medal in the individual C4 pursuit to bring home Ireland’s first ever cycling medal at an Olympics or Paralympics.
While the World Champions at this event will perhaps be disappointed not to be going home with gold, today’s performance by the Irish pair is likely to prove massively significant in terms of maintaining and increasing funding for track paracycling.
But for now Walsh and Meehan won’t be too concerned about that, instead enjoying their moment on a track with a massive number of very vocal Irish fans screaming them on.
In the qualifiers this morning the Irish pair were beaten by the New Zealanders Phillipa Gray and Lauran Thompson.
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The Kiwis blasted to a new world record of 3:31.530, nearly five seconds faster than the Irish tandem’s new national record of 3:36.453.
Both teams were first and second at the end of the qualifiers, meaning this afternoon’s gold medal ride off was a rematch between the two nations.
In that ride-off the Kiwis again had too much for Walsh and Meehan, clocking a time of 3:32.243 against Ireland’s time of 3:36.360.
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In the qualifiers this morning in the same event the second Irish pairing of Katy George Dunlevy and pilot Sandra Fitzgerald were 5th. Their time of 3:42.445 smashed their previous personal best by six seconds.
We’ll have more on this tremendous performance later.
Also in action today were Colin Lynch, Cathal Miller and Enda Smyth in the Mixed C1 to 5 Team Sprint. As first starters the trio broke the Paralympic record in a time of 56.401, which they held for several rounds. They eventually came home in 8th place, with the top four nations going on to the final this evening.
Speaking after the race, the team credited Terry Cromer with their smooth transitions that helped deliver the new Irish record.
Lynch said: “We broke the Paralympic record and held it for a while, that’s just great.”
Miller added: “This team have produced such great performances so far, it was unbelievable to come out and break the Paralympic record in the opening rounds”.
Smyth concluded: “Not bad for three auld fellows.”
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